ONE Championship will be in Bangkok, Thailand on October 6, 2018 for “ONE: Kingdom of Heroes.” One of the bouts on the fight card is between Shinya “Tobikan Judan” Aoki, 35, of Japan and Ev “E.T.” Ting, 29, of New Zealand and Malaysia.

Aoki and Ting will compete in the lightweight division at “ONE: Kingdom of Heroes.” The winner will earn a shot at the ONE Lightweight World Championship, which was recently vacated by Martin “The Situ-Asian” Nguyen, 29, of Australia and Vietnam, who still holds the ONE Featherweight World Championship title.

On November 23, 2018, Eduard “Landslide” Folayang, 34, of the Philippines and Amir Khan, 23, of Singapore will compete for the ONE Lightweight World Championship at “ONE: Conquest of Champions” the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City, Metro Manila, Philippines. Consequently, yhe new champion will be challenged by the winner of the bout between Ting and Aoki at “ONE: Kingdom of Heroes.”

On August 23, 2018, ONE Championship held its first ever press conference in Japan at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Tokyo. Aoki was one of the Japanese mixed martial artists who attended the event.

“Martial arts is my passion and I am grateful for the opportunity to help lead martial arts in Asia into the future,” Aoki said during the event. “ONE Championship is a tremendous organization and now that we are going to have our first live event in Tokyo, it will only help highlight the beauty of martial arts in Japan.”

Currently, Aoki holds a professional MMA record of 41 wins and 8 losses. On the other hand, Ting has 16 wins and 4 losses.

Both Aoki and Ting won two bouts in 2018. The Japanese MMA veteran submitted Rasul Yakhaev, 27, of Russia on May 18, 2018 and knocked out Shannon “OneShin” Wiratchai, 29, of Thailand on July 27, 2018.